Background
Cradled within a glorious range of mountains, Kelowna, British
Columbia is a sanctuary filled with pristine lakes, pine forests, abundant gardens, orchards and vineyards,
sandy beaches and superb amenities.
Stretching from north to south for approximately 135 km (84 miles) is
beautiful Okanagan Lake. The lake sustains several diverse communities, with long warm summers and short mild
winters. The city of Kelowna is the largest community and is located midway through the valley. It has a rapidly
growing population and is the primary transportation, business and service hub of the valley.
The Challenge
Kelowna’s wastewater system collects, conveys, treats and disposes of
domestic and industrial wastewater from homes and businesses. On a peak day, wastewater treatment exceeds 42
million liters (11M gallons). Wastewater is conveyed to Kelowna’s Wastewater Treatment Facility (WWTF) through a
network of 595 km (370 miles) of wastewater mains and 49 lift stations.
All of the wastewater operations
need to be managed as efficiently as possible with relatively limited staff resources. At the same time, the
solution had to accommodate a rapidly growing population and address new challenges, such as monitoring H2S,
creek levels, and optimizing cleaning efficiency.
The Solution
Guided by a forward-looking operations team, Kelowna has become a
leader in the use of SmartCover technology across a variety of innovative applications.
Primary among
these is deployment of H2S monitoring sensors to more accurately manage hydrogen sulfide levels.
The
distinctive, persistent rotten egg smell created by the presence of H2S is a nuisance to employees, residents,
community leaders, and businesses located near manholes and water treatment facilities. H2S also causes
corrosion to pipes, leading to shorter asset life and increased replacement costs.
The Results
Kelowna now has remote, real-time visibility into their sewer system
using SmartCover’s instant infrastructure.
Real-time H2S monitoring has resulted in significant cost
savings -- allowing them to combine remote H2S level data with remote dosing to minimize staff trips to the
field.
Remote deployments to locations without power or existing communications enable SmartCover to
address a range of needs.
Deployment Scenarios:
Summary
The City of Kelowna is leveraging many of SmartCover’s unique features, including the off grid aspect of satellite communications, to address a wide range of innovative and preventative wastewater applications such as overflow prevention, optimization of high frequency cleaning, and ongoing I&I studies. In addition, other departments in the city were able to take advantage of SmartCover technology for H2S monitoring, leachate at the solid waste facility, and stream level monitoring. An added benefit for all City users has been the ability to access the same cloud-based system user dashboard to view reports that have analytics across applications. There is also the ability to retain archived data from previously-deployed sites in order to easily view comparisons with historic data for performance evaluation. The extensive use of their collection system data is what makes Kelowna a true smart city.